Edinburg-based DHR Health is opening a new hospital in Brownsville at the site of the former Brownsville Doctors Hospital at 4750 N. Expressway.
DHR bought the three-story, 79,396-square-foot building last year. The company is advertising for registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and certified nurse assistants across a number of departments; pharmacists, phlebotomists and medical lab scientists; technicians in respiratory therapy, emergency services, sterile processing and CT and x-ray; and housekeeping and financial counseling personnel.
Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez said DHR is offering good jobs with an average starting wage over $30 an hour.
“The medical industry is certainly a growing industry here in Brownsville and the Valley,” he said. “And nursing pays very well, and hospitals are always looking for good nurses.”
Mendez said getting DHR to open a hospital in Brownsville has been a priority since he was elected, and that he’d been talking with the company’s owners and administrators over the “past couple of years.” Mendez said the new facility will help fill a gap in certain types of specialty services in the city, and credited city leaderships across the board for making it happen.
“They’ve been interested in Brownsville and they thought the leadership was capable and wanted to be part of the things that are happening here in the city,” he said. “They saw an opportunity and they’re officially opening a hospital now, which is great news.”
Mendez said the fact that DHR executives attended his State of the City address in October 2019 signaled the company’s interest in Brownsville, whose residents he believes will benefit from a quality-of-life perspective by the addition of DHR’s services.
“To have them want to come down here is a big deal for us, because they’ve obviously done some good things in Edinburg,” Mendez said. “Their campus is really huge over there. They’ve got all sorts of specialty services, research facilities. Their campus in Edinburg is really impressive.”
Initially at least, DHR will complement services offered by Brownsville’s two other hospitals, Valley Baptist Medical Center and Valley Regional Medical Center, he said.
“Obviously another hospital is never a bad thing,” Mendez said.
The new facility will open in two phases, with the hospital opening its doors in late summer, he said.
“Phase one is going to kick off very quickly, then phase two would come later in the year, but they want to get going very quickly,” Mendez said. “They’re ready to go.
DHR hospital officials did not respond to requests for comments as of press time.
